01 February 2011

2/1/10 - A new day a new life

What an incredible 24 hours it has been! PHEW!! This is completely amazing, overwhelming, wild, dreamy and just....just perfect. Yesterday was incredible, did I say incredible again?

Our emotions were all over the place waiting for the official time to walk across the street to the adoptions affairs office. Which once again is across many lanes of traffic and in Nanchang there are no over or under walkways, it’s just straight across in front of cars, busses, motorbikes and bikes that wont stop for you. We are SO thankful for our guides, Mary and Elise who literally stop traffic for us. So yeahhhh back to the story right??

So as we are walking out of our hotel my heart was beating so fast and I could not catch my breath at all and as we walk out, in walks two beautiful babies one of which I am certain is Xiao Cheng, Jennifer. With rain pouring down and our guides rushing the five of us families across the street we couldn’t stop and say something. Walking into the Adoption Center was another tear jerker for me as I knew the four years of waiting was almost done. All of us boarded one elevator and a silence filled the space for the 26 floors we climbed, the whole time my voice was saying “thank you Lord!”. We walked into a dark, cool room to be met by three beautiful girls who where waiting to be met with their families. It was the most incredible thing to watch. SO beautiful. We felt so blessed to have been able to experience that so intimately.

The whole while ourselves and the other mom awaiting her daughter were looking for our girls who are from the same orphanage. Mike told our guide that we saw them at the hotel and she quickly made a call to find out....and yes that was my daughter that passed me almost shoulder to shoulder 30 minutes prior. I sat praying for what seemed like forever, that the girls would not have to walk across that street and then back again with us a while later...prayers answered we were asked to quickly get back to the hotel. Relief and once again loss of breath.

You know what happened next. I sit here and write this and just fill with such joy. It was an incredible moment. A moment I will never forget. I felt so similar to when Jacob was born, very loud all around, lots of people surrounding me and pure breathlessness but only one thing in front of me...my baby.

The night that followed was a long one. Baby Jennifer cried unconsolably for many hours. She would look at us and just cry in fright. We fed her a bottle which she quickly inhaled all the while my mom and papa on skype watching the entire thing. After removing several of her layers, 4 total, we changed her diaper and just held her for the night as she went in and out of grieving and calm. It was a sleepless night, but a joyous one. One filled with learning each others faces and constant checking to see if we were still there.

Morning broke quickly and we were greeted with shy smiles and little bits of happiness. Praise God! The day ahead was PACKED with official duties starting at 9am, so with full tummies we headed out thinking we would be having to run across the street again but nope! We got a bus!!! WHOOOOHOOOOO! We literally drove around the block to the other side of the street. LOL! The next several hours were all about becoming parents. We took oaths. We took pictures. We drove to another office. We visited with other families. We gave gifts. We talked with the orphanage director. We cried. We became the parents of the most amazingly beautiful little girl, Jennifer Lee Xiaocheng.

Then we went to Walmart. And that my friends is where we got lost at sea. OHMY! I think the best way to describe it for those who haven’t done it before is this...imagine going to Walmart the day after Thanksgiving and there are 1000’s of people in there with the music blaring the entire time and things hanging in glass display cases that you once saw walking around. Yeah, it was an experience to say the least!! The funniest part of gathering our water and diapers was watching Jennifer, she LOVED every minute. She kicked her legs the entire time and kept just smiling at us. I posted a video of her looking at a huge bear that would come home with us if it could fit in the suitcase.

We are now back in our hotel room just being a family. We’re working on our second nap, Jacob is working on school work and learning more and more about our girl. She’s got a lot of work to do to get her up to speed, but we’re doing exercises and helping her adjust to this new world she was just put into 24 hours ago. Her favorite place to be is in the sling, she just sits in there like a peanut in a shell and watches us, for hours. Ahhhh, can you say joy!

Okay...until next time, which may not be as long!

Love and joy!

Mike and Kayce

PS - I am posting this without checking my spelling so I’m sorry ahead of time if I say something totally Kayce without meaning it! LOVE YOU!!!

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Those first 24 hours of having our daughter in our lives was a blur. Once we closed the door to our room behind us the world tilted slightly and we went into complete care mode. My panic was gone. My fears of inadequacy vanished. My love for my husband grew. We were finally parents of a child of our own and it was beautiful. Well almost beautiful. The only place she found safe was in the sling with the flaps around her and the comfort of being wrapped up in a cocoon. She would spend hours in that sling and still does to this day. She will smile so big now when I pull it out and practically beg to go in it. This was one thing I will never regret doing while in China. If she wasn't in bed, she was in her pouch...for meals out, walking around the hotel, or just hanging in our room.

My dinner helper. Bad pic taken with photobooth. ;)

Our poor girl was completely overwhelmed as expected and it just broke my heart. I could see that her heart was broken too, in a million pieces. That first night was long and the beginning of something we've only just recently begun to control and understand completely. I remember just watching this little tiny person laying next to me and being in awe and total love with her. As I crawled into bed last night, one year later and watched her sleep next to me, I was taken back to that first night with her. I just stared at her last night until I fell asleep just as I'd done one year earlier to the day.

I loved my days with our sling!! Lauren has sadly outgrown her sling now, but funny thing was, this morning she took her babies with us for our walk with Bailey and she had her babies in her sling. :) She said, "just like you carried me when I was a little baby in China momma!" ;)

Thank you for the reminder about the sling. Hannah often needs 'mommy time' when I first get home from work. I've added a bottle to that time to give us some time but she often wants up when I'm cooking. Hadn't thought about the sling but it's a great suggestion! Will try it out tonight. thanks!!